On this day (12 November) in 1898 Manchester City’s tenth League game of the season saw them travel to promotion rivals Glossop North End. According to the Glossop Chronicle the attendance was 7,000 with over half the attendance coming from Manchester. City won the match 2-1 with goals from Gillespie and Meredith. The Chronicle reporter described the opener as ‘the softest I have ever seen.’ He went on: ‘Williams [Glossop’s ‘keeper] got down to stop the ball as it rolled quietly goalwards, but he completely missed it, although it was going so slowly it hardly rolled as far as the net.’
The Glossop match came in the middle of a 13 match unbeaten run, placing City as comfortable League leaders. The main photo is of Glossop in 1898 and the following is of City that same season.
Here’s a team photo of Manchester City, taken at Hyde Road, in 1900. It’s a typical squad pose in front of the old Hyde Road main stand which was destroyed by fire twenty years later. Notice the way the wooden wall of the stand was painted in City blue and white. People often talk about Hyde Road as if it was this dull, dismal ground but the stand here had only been erected a few years earlier and Joshua Parlby, Lawrence Furniss and the others behind the club made sure it was frequently painted blue and white (plus green) wherever possible.
Over the following twenty years City continued to invest in the ground but the site restricted the club’s growth and 40,000 crowds could not be accommodated particularly well. Often gates would be closed some way off capacity under the orders of the local police who tried to keep crowds back. Bennett Street and even Hyde Road itself were often overcrowded with fans hoping to get in.
There’s lots more on here about Hyde Road and City’s other grounds. Do a few searches and see what you find. Some is only for subscribers but much is available freely. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to research Manchester’s football history so if you want to support this work and get something back then please subscribe. Thanks.
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
City v Newcastle is one of the most enduring fixtures in English football. There have been cup finals, title deciders, dramatic games, shared heroes and so much more. The two clubs first met in the League in October 1893 (Ardwick/MCFC’s 2nd season in the League) and have since played each other 189 times overall with City winning 76 and Newcastle 72 games.
As tonight is a League Cup tie, the most famous meeting of the teams in that competition came in 1976 at Wembley when Peter Barnes and Dennis Tueart both scored for the Blues.
Most Blues of my age and above will remember where they were when our King returned to action on Boxing Day 1977. Here’s an interview I did with him a few years back when we talked about that special day:
There was a really odd thing a while back where a Newcastle paper claimed that their local team had first worn bar scarves at games. A few simple searches soon proved there were much earlier bar scarfs:
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
During the 1920s Manchester City had a goalkeeper Jim Mitchell who played in glasses – not specially produced glasses, ordinary glasses of the period!
Here are some images of him in action. I’m not quite certain what’s happened but it looks like he changed his shirt during the game because these are definitely from the same match:
Born in Prestwich, Jim Mitchell was a former Manchester University and Northern Nomads ‘keeper. He also had spells at Blackpool and at Preston where he gained an extremely good reputation. He gained several significant honours and was the Great Britain goalkeeper at the 1920 Olympics. He also kept goal for Preston in the 1922 FA Cup final (the last played at Stamford Bridge before Wembley Stadium opened) against Huddersfield and hit the headlines by leaping around while a penalty was being taken against him – this caused the rules to be changed.
He joined City shortly after the final and replaced Goodchild as City’s number one the following September, making his debut on 9th September 1922 at home to Birmingham. Despite wearing glasses – on the pitch as well as off it – Mitchell was an agile ‘keeper and made 22 appearances in his first season.
Always an amateur, Mitchell made history by being City ‘keeper for the first game at Maine Road (25th August 1923) and was generally recognised as a quality ‘keeper by neutrals. He was certainly known nationwide and was capped at both an amateur level and for the full England side.
He later had a spell at Leicester, though he never appeared in their first team, and joined the footwear firm Stead & Simpson. He went on to become their Managing Director. He passed away in 1975.
Appearances: League: 99 FA Cup: 10
Search my site and you’ll find film of Mitchell at Maine Road’s opening game in 1923. There’s also much more on this 1924 FA Cup semi final featuring Mitchell. It was Billy Meredith’s last game and subscribers can read more and watch film of it here:
It’s Day 99 of my Maine Road 100 countdown to the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. One more day to go! I hope you’ve enjoyed this free series. Today it’s about the oldest and youngest players to have appeared for City at Maine Road. Any ideas who they may be?
Billy Meredith was the oldest to play for City at Maine Road. He was 49 years & 238 days old when he played for City against Preston on 22/3/1924. This was Maine Road’s first season too!
Billy Meredith Returns to MCFC in 1921
Glyn Pardoe was the youngest to play for City at Maine Road. He was 15 years and 314 days old when he made his debut v Birmingham City on 11/4/1961.
Tomorrow will be the centenary of Maine Road’s first game. I hope you have enjoyed my 100 day countdown. If you have enjoyed this series of articles and posts on Maine Road then why not become a subscriber and access all the other great content. To find out more see:
Day 59 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game is the story of the day Celtic and Rangers played a game at Maine Road as a combined Glasgow XI. That day was the great City player Billy Meredith’s testimonial.
It was played on 29 April 1925 and saw a MEREDITH XI versus RANGERS & CELTIC XI.
A series of benefit matches and events were organised for Billy Meredith following his retirement in 1924, with this match being the most significant event. Somehow Meredith had convinced Rangers and Celtic to form one side to take on a team of Lancashire based players selected by Meredith himself. The Meredith side, playing in red and white, contained City favourites Frank Roberts and Charlie Pringle, plus of course Meredith, and former City star Horace Barnes – a Preston player at the time of the match. City’s legendary trainer Jimmy Broad trained the team.
The Glasgow side, playing in blue and white, contained five Celtic players – including Jimmy McGrory – and six Rangers men. Former City full-back Johnny McMahon was one of the linesmen, while the other was an ex-United star George Wall, who incredibly smoked a pipe throughout the match.
Meredith testimonial programme, as seen in From Maine Men To Banana Citizens by Gary James
According to the Manchester Evening Chronicle report: ‘Many old friendships were renewed at Maine Road on Wednesday night, and we all laughed at Meredith trying the old backheel to the half-back business with very little success. Incidentally the main image above is of Meredith a couple of years earlier with the Hyde Road ground in the background.
A few moments from the match, including the teams posing for photographs. The footage concentrates on Meredith pre-match, and also shows the Popular Side (later Kippax) and Platt Lane end. The camera was placed in front of the Platt Lane end, close to the goal for much of the action (Platt Lane is the stand numbered 4 & 5 in the image below, although that stand was still unroofed back in 1925).
If you enjoy all the free material on my website and would like to support my research and keep this website going (but don’t want to subscribe) then why not make a one-time donation (or buy me a coffee). All support for my research is valued and welcome. It allows me to keep some free material available for all. Thanks.
For many, many years Dave Masey has been collecting stats and historical information on Manchester City. Like me he was a member of the Association of Football Statisticians and he has helped me often over the years. Following Saturday’s FA Cup final he got in touch with me to tell me about one of his spreadsheets which holds details of City scorers in trophy winning games.
His records capture those who have scored in major cup finals, but besides Cup Finals he also records other trophy-winning games. These include the deciding League games from 1937 onwards against Sheffield Wednesday (1937), Newcastle, QPR, West Ham, Brighton and Villa (2022), but nothing from three recent title successes where the Blues clinched the title when they were not playing. Got that? Good, now….
Dave tells me that Gundogan is now at the top of the list with 5 goals, overtaking Neil Young and Sergio Aguero. So he has scored more goals in trophy-winning games than any other Blue.
The list of scorers in trophy winning games reads:
1904
Meredith
1934/7
Tilson (3), Brook (2), Doherty
1956
Hayes, Dyson, Johnstone
1968/70
Young (4), Lee (2), Summerbee, Doyle, Pardoe
1976
P Barnes, Tueart
2011-(former)
Aguero (4), Y Toure (2), Nasri (2), Kompany (2), D Silva (2),Jesus (2), Sterling (2), Dzeko, Zabaleta, Navas, Fernandinho
2016-(current)
Gundogan (5), Laporte (2), Rodri (2), Mahrez, De Bruyne
Dave also tells me that in the three seasons where somebody else’s defeat clinched the title for City, the scorers in the club’s last game before the title confirmation were:
Gundogan (3), Sterling (2), Jesus, Haaland.
As Dave says, Ilkay gets a remarkable number of important goals, particularly for somebody who is ‘just’ a 1 goal in 5 games player (60 in 303 for City). Certainly this season he has played a true leader’s role and, looking at his place in this table, he is clearly a man for all trophy-winning seasons.
As part of their All-Manchester FA Cup features the Athletic have asked their writers about the most important FA Cup final. Well, as it’s a City-Utd final then it makes sense to highlight the first ever FA Cup final featuring one of the teams. In 1904 Manchester found its first major trophy success and that led to Manchester being established as a footballing city. It’s part of the reason Manchester City retained a special place in the hearts and minds of Mancunians, even when the success faded.
The captain and goalscorer was the great Billy Meredith. The other year, following the purchase of the oldest surviving FA Cup by Sheikh Mansour (to loan to the National Football Museum) I helped Manchester City with the story of the cup and its significance to Manchester. They’ve produced a video telling the story and it can be viewed here:
On Saturday April 22 1899 the football season ended with Manchester City as comfortable champtions of the Second Division. They were the first side nationally to gain automatic promotion (a series of test matches, similar to play offs, had been utilised in previous seasons) and the first of the Manchester teams ever to earn promotion and win a national League competition.
Subscribers can read about the final game and other information from that season below:
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On this day (29 March) in 1924 Manchester City faced Newcastle United in the FA Cup semi-final. Not only that but the game was to be the last competitive game played by City’s legendary winger Billy Meredith. Meredith’s Manchester career began in 1894 when he joined City.
Here for subscribers is the story of that game, plus a contemporary match report and film of Meredith’s last game. Enjoy!
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